The Medical Examiners Office based in Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been recognised at this year’s Patient Experience Network National Awards (PENNA).
The team were presented with the Team of the Year Award at the ceremony held on Thursday 3 October at the University of Birmingham, for their contribution to bringing death certification reforms to North West Surrey. The award recognises their efforts in ensuring a smooth transition for families in relation to the national death certification process changes which came into effect last month.
The team have also been shortlisted for a Smarter Working Live Award in the category ‘Small Scale, Big Impact’. The Medical Examiners Office were shortlisted for this award for the work they did back in 2020, to design a referral service that allowed community deaths to be brought to the attention of any Medical Examiner Office wherever their location, with sufficient coded records that would allow proportionate scrutiny.
This work led to their referral service becoming the process of choice within Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System, and one of three preferred options for NHS England to use in the statutory rollout.
“We are really proud that our lockdown project, conceived from re-purposing existing tech and pathways has received GOV.UK recognition,” said Tanaya Sarkhel, Lead Medical Examiner at Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals.
The Smarter Working Live awards ceremony will be held at The Vox Conference Centre in Birmingham on Thursday 21 November 2024. To view the full shortlist, please visit www.smarterworkinglive.com/shortlist/
Photo credit: Richard Southall
